Japan speed-eater gobbles title

[SunWuKong]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3865657.stm

Japan speed-eater gobbles title

Takeru Kobayashi is not nicknamed "Tsunami" or "Big Wave" for nothing.

The Japanese world speed-eating champion has swallowed a total of 53 and a half hot dogs, and their accompanying buns, in just 12 minutes.

He broke last year's record during a hot dog eating event at New York's Coney Island on Sunday.

Mr Kobayashi used his trademark "Solomon technique" - splitting the sausage in two before wolfing it down and moving on to the next one.

Records smashed

"I think he has proven, once again, that he is one of the finest athletes of any sport in the world," said spokesman for the contest Richard Shea.

A Japanese citizen Noboyuki Shirota came in second after wolfing down some 38 hot dogs.

An American of South Korean descent Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, came in third with 32 dogs, breaking the women's world record.

"She's just beginning with this, so the sky's the limit," Mr Shea said of Ms Thomas.

"She may be the only one who can challenge the Japanese's dominance in the future."

The hot dog competition has been running at Coney island since 1916.

Some 3,000 people turned out on Sunday to watch the dogs go down.

[BeTheReds]

Tak has been dominating eating contests for years.

[ism]

I just read the pornstar thread and it's an interesting segue to reading about Japanese gobbling hotdogs.

[yoMAMA]

the funny thing is, he's a skinny little guy.

[PropellerheadCP]

Imagine how "backed up" the people must be, after eating so many hot dogs... and ONLY hot dogs. Yikes!!!

[>:^|]

I thought it was funny that the winning three were of Asian descent. What a role model to have.

[thaite]

EAT, LITTLE ASIAN BOY!! EAT LIKE THE WIND!!!

[mrazntre]

I was watching the ESPN coverage at the time and the reporter was interviewing the big ass American guy asking something like, "Why the Japanese dominance? Do you think they use stomach muscle relaxers or some other kind of blah blah blah?" As the American answered no and tried to give Tak some props the reporter just cut the tape. Plus he said something about training, training training all year long. How the hell do you train to eat? Man.. that's just crazy.

No love.

[Faithless]

53 hotdogs in your tummy has got to hurt.

It also must expand that sucker some three or four fold.

[nameless]

I saw the ESPN coverage, too. The guy is like...5'10, maybe 5'11 and pretty skinny. The korean woman (who's too cute, btw) has got to be like 5'2. Hilarious how she beats out the huge American guys.

[Cipherous]

Originally Posted by nameless

I saw the ESPN coverage, too. The guy is like...5'10, maybe 5'11 and pretty skinny. The korean woman (who's too cute, btw) has got to be like 5'2. Hilarious how she beats out the huge American guys.

I watched it too and I was amazed how all the top guys were really skinny dudes.

Like the top three were skinny Asians (two japanese and one Korean American lady). 4th was that big Black dude and 5th was this skinny old white dude.